Maryland reports deadliest day from COVID-19

With 74 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 announced Saturday, Maryland saw its deadliest day yet from the pandemic.

Maryland health department officials reported 797 total deaths Saturday and 1,150 new cases of COVID-19, an increase in the number of new cases added the day before.

Another 78 deaths were listed as probably caused by COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, but had not been confirmed by a laboratory test.

Maryland has yet to see more than two consecutive days in which the number of new cases was lower than the day before. Republican Gov. Larry Hogan has said he will start to make decisions about reopening the state’s economy once new cases decrease 14 days in a row.

Additionally, 142 more people have been hospitalized for complications related to COVID-19 since Friday, the state reported, bringing the number of people in the hospital to 1,408 and total hospitalizations thus far to 3,760.

Ricci said it is “a fair assessment” to say that hospitalization trends better reflect the current situation than trends in the number of deaths, “particularly since deaths tend to lag about two weeks behind infections.”

Among those hospitalized, a total of 538 people are in intensive care units.

And 1,165 people have been released from isolation.

“Hospitalizations and [intensive care unit] beds are the primary data points we are looking at, but we are looking at all the trends to see where we are and where we need to focus our efforts,” Ricci said.

The state continued to report more total cases in the 20-29 age group than those over 80, but the latter group still far outnumbers the former in confirmed fatalities.

Black Marylanders continue to outnumber other reported racial and ethnic groups in total cases, with 6,314 of the state’s 17,766 cases, equating to nearly 36%.

Black and white Maryland residents have about the same number of total related deaths — with 301 and 296, respectively — though black Marylanders make up a smaller portion of the state’s population.

Prince George’s County continues to lead jurisdictions in total case count, with 4,795, and total deaths, with 162. With 417 cases, ZIP code 20783 in Prince George’s surpasses 21215 in Baltimore and Baltimore County and Montgomery County’s 20904, each with 320.